The disgraced former NFL All-Pro put away Austen Lane
with a savage two-punch combination on Dana White’s Tuesday Night
Contender Series at the UFC Training Center in Las Vegas. Hardy
(1-0), who spent six seasons in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers
and Dallas Cowboys, brought it to a close 57 seconds into Round 1.
Afterward, he was awarded an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract by UFC President Dana
White.

Neither man was bashful with his hands. After a brief pause for an
inadvertent eye poke, Hardy dropped Lane (2-1) to a knee with a
wicked right hook, allowed him to stand and uncorked a left hook
that floored him where he stood. By then, referee Mark Smith was on
the scene to prevent further damage.

Menifield (7-0) smothered an attempted head kick, drove the
Virginian to the canvas with a clubbing right hand and pummeled him
with a volley of unanswered lefts for the finish. The performance
was enough to earn the 205-pound prospect a UFC contract.

Finally, onetime
CES MMA champion Chris
Curtis cut down Sean Lally
with a hook kick and follow-up punches in the third round of their
welterweight confrontation. Lally (7-3) succumbed to blows 1:37
into Round 3, his four-fight winning streak at an end.

Curtis (19-5) walked through leg kicks from the Army Ranger, worked
body-head combinations and connected with uppercuts from both
hands. He rang Lally’s bell with a crisp 1-2 in the second round
before finishing it in spectacular fashion in the third. The hook
kick landed clean, and Curtis trailed the Team Sityodtong rep to
the canvas with punches until it the job was done.